Beijing, China

Our flight to Beijing was really nice. The plane was huge and they gave free, full meals to everyone. Of course, I was sleeping when they came by and missed both the food and drink service, but they left me a little note that says “Dear Miss/Sir, Never too late to ask for our service. Thank you.” Apparently it was delicious but I woke up as we landed and therefore never got to enjoy it.

After checking into the hotel, I met up with a bunch of friends to go find some food and drinks. We were told that an area called Ho Hai was the place to go so we searched for that. We asked someone for help finding it since we were having a difficult time finding it, which we soon realized as we followed the man, was because it was down a series of alleyways. The area was amazing. It consisted of numerous bars and restaurants lit up beautifully around a lake. We walked around for a while trying to find an inexpensive restaurant, but this area was where a lot of locals hung out and went for nice meals so it was more on the expensive side (for college students traveling on a budget). We ended up finding some place all the way at the end that was nicely priced. They stuck us in a room off to the side but it was fine since it had a beautiful view of the water. Ordering was a disaster- the waitress couldn’t understand our hand gestures or pointing and luckily two different people in the restaurant saw us struggling so they came over to help- they lived in Beijing but were from Europe and America. The meal was incredible and delicious and we couldn’t even come close to finishing all that we ordered. However, the final amount was less than 10 dollars each, and that included drinks. We all headed back to the hotel after because we were exhausted and had a big day ahead of us the next day.

The few things that I wrote in my journal about what I have noticed thus far were that crossing the street is difficult- they do not watch out or stop for you; pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way. Second, people find you fascinating in China and children wave and giggle or are completely terrified. Adults take pictures of and with us (especially redheads) as if they are celebrities. Thirdly, everything in China is incredibly cheap.

The next morning we were woken up early by a mix of wake-up calls, alarms and the housekeeping staff screaming loudly in the hallway for no apparent reason. We packed up and checked out since we were spending the night on the great wall. Then, we started off the morning walking to the Forbidden City. It was magnificent and everywhere the colors were incredible. Our tour guide told us a lot about the tradition, myths and superstitions that existed in the old days when the Forbidden City was used. A lot of it has to do with lucky and unlucky numbers, or how to put your foot over a doorway threshold. After walking through the Forbidden City for a while, you start to feel like you are walking in circles and we all started to get confused about where we were. All the buildings are painted similarly and the squares are the same style so it was hard to tell them apart. As you walk out of the Forbidden City you find yourself in Tiananmen Square, which is the famous square where a lot of historical Chinese events have taken place, such as the pro-democracy protests in 1989. We got some pictures in front of the picture of Chairman Mao and walked around before leaving for our next destination.

The Xiushiu Silk Market was our next stop- a large six or seven story building that had massive amounts of market shopping. Each floor had a different theme and they had everything that you could hope for. I bought some souvenirs and most people spent their time buying layers for the Great Wall. We had pizza for lunch, enjoying the Chinese culture and then headed to the bus for our two hour drive to the section of the Great Wall that we would watch the sunset from. I slept most of the ride along with everyone else but  luckily woke up as we got close enough to see it far in the distance. It was incredible and more exciting than I expected. It sat on top of these big, beautiful mountains and it just looked magnificent. Since the sun was already beginning to set when we got there, we rushed up the steps of the wall to the top section that we were aiming for. Since I was sick, I was unable to breathe through my nose and my breathing was not great so it was an interesting climb. I got some really great pictures when we finally made it to the top so it was worth it! We were all scattered over three towers of the wall and there was one point when all the people by me got quiet at once and we just soaked in the silence and the peacefulness of the surroundings.

There were many small world connections that have been discovered since the beginning of my trip. One of these was ON the Great Wall. There was a group of students coming up the wall as we were going down. We stopped to talk to two of them and discovered that one knew a girl on SAS that was roommates with one of the girls I was with. Also one of them was in AEPI at Maryland. Anyway, we continued down to go eat a HUGE meal at a restaurant at the bottom of the section of the wall that we would be sleeping on. Second small world connection was that someone that I ate dinner with is from the same town as my roommate at school (Natalie) and his dad used to date her mom. It amazes me what a small world it is. After dinner we had a massive changing party on the bus, all layering up for our cold night on the wall. We received little wind-up flashlights that you could hear us winding all the way up the wall.

The hike was crazy long and difficult. It was ALL uphill and seemed to go on forever. We were not expecting it to be that tough of a hike so we were completely unprepared. When we finally arrived at the top we scoped out a sleeping spot, grabbed a few sleeping bags and snacks, and went to figure out what space we wanted to make out bathroom that couldn’t be seen by people on the wall. My homemade bed of three sleeping bags didn’t quite cut it for the night and I kept waking up with some part of my body sticking out and freezing. But I made it through the night! At one point I woke up to go to the bathroom which was a definite adventure. I tried to make my way through the people sleeping along the wall to our bathroom place but they were lined up incredibly close to each other and there was NO WHERE to step to get by them. So I went closer to the tower that I was staying in, but because it was freezing, tried to go as quickly as possible for fear of frost bite on my butt. I then climbed back into the tower and attempted to get some more sleep before we were woken up a few hours later.

After waking up and bathroom hunting again (much more difficult in the light), a group of us left to hike to the end of the section. Every few minutes in the beginning we were stopping and taking off one of the many layers we were wearing. The sun beating down on us combined with the hike was making us overly warm. I ended up with everything but my main layer in my backpack after the first 15 minutes. The nice part of this hike was that there was just as much downhill as there was uphill so it wasn’t nearly as vigorous. A while later we finally made it to the zipline, rejoicing and proud that we made it. One of the cooler parts of the hike was crossing over a small walking bridge over a beautiful river in between two mountains. This was also the part that we ziplined over but from higher up and farther away. The zipline was one of the best parts of the China trip. Aside from being a beautiful view, it was a lot of fun to go down it. We got to go two people per ride which made me much less anxiety-ridden since I was with a friend.

We then ate lunch and got back on the bus for the two hour ride back to Beijing, where we walked around the Olympic Park and saw the Birds Nest and Water Cube. It was very exciting and looked awesome up close. By the end of this everyone was done and ready to go back to the hotel for the day so luckily we headed there. I napped and took the most amazing shower ever- I even washed my hair with two different types of shampoo just to make sure it was clean. Then we met up to go find some dinner in the area. We ended up stopping at this place that we had passed a bunch of times that was beautifully lit up and had a bunch of nice cars outside, but figured we might as well just looked at the prices. This was a great choice as it definitely was not expensive and it was a hot pot dinner. Hot pot is when you cook your own food in these individual pots of boiling water filled with spices and such. It was delicious, but we needed some help from the staff because we were making messes and having a lot of issues doing it ourselves, especially with the chopsticks. It was an interesting experience to say the least. The best part was that the sauce is the one used on cold sesame noodles so I was obviously in heaven. Afterwards, we went to walk around and explore while we waited for our stomachs to settle. We ended up back at Ho Hai and watched the locals set off fireworks for the Chinese New Year (every day and night there were constant fireworks being set off EVERYWHERE). We stopped for some candy and snacks at a convenience store and headed back to the hotel. We were all so tired so the idea of a good nights sleep was very exciting.

The next morning we started the day off going to the New Year Temple Fair at the Temple of Earth and the Temple of Fire. It was amazing and so much fun. The “fair” really was all that the word encompasses- there were live performances, games, food and fun! It definitely gave me a better appreciation for what an incredible time of year it was to be traveling in China. People were bustling around the place so joyous and happy and it was so cool to be able to get a taste of their celebrations. While walking around, we ended up discovering a group of performers all dressed up that had just finished a show. They hung out with us for a while, putting the costumes on us, posing for pictures, etc. What we realized is that a lot of the people at the fair are farmers and do not spend much time in Beijing or any big city, so there were a lot more people than normal wanted to take pictures with us.

After the temple fair we went for a rickshaw ride around the Hutong, or traditional neighborhood, and got to get a glimpse of what that is like now. We also got to eat lunch at a local families home and it was delicious. I enjoyed learning some of what it is like to live in this area of China. For example, during the winter they have to use a communal bathroom that is a block away from their home because their home toilet is outdoors. Apparently in the morning you see people running to it from all sides. Also, all the rooms in the home are shared by a few people.

Later in this day we went to the Summer Palace, which is probably the most beautiful Beijing site that I believe we saw. The architecture, paintings and sights were just magnificent.  The day was very gray, which I am sure made it less shiny and beautiful but left it with a nice serene look. One of my favorite parts of the Summer Palace was that it was around a lake and there was a line of boats that they would use to get from one part to another. But next to the line of boats was a cement boat-like structure. This is because the empress that lived there got boat sick but wanted to think that she was in a boat so there were mirrors in the fake boat that made it look like they were moving through the water. After the Summer Palace we went to a tea-making lesson at a place called Dr. Tea. We got to try a bunch of different types of tea, watch them make it, and then make whatever purchases we would like from them of course.

For dinner we went to a duck restaurant, as Beijing is famous for its peking duck. We were brought so much food that by the time the duck came around lastly everyone was so full. Still, we pushed ourselves past the limit to try to food that we came to eat- it was good but not too amazing. I didn’t like how they brought it over to the table whole to cut it right in front of us. We left really quickly from dinner because we were going to an acrobatic show. We literally got there as the show was starting. I was a pretty awesome show- aside from the typical acrobat show acts they did a few cool things that I can’t even describe involving bicycles and these spinning cages. When the show ended, we walked out into the lobby to discover that there were about five SAS groups there and a few hundred people. It was crazy.

We headed back to the hotel to change and get ready to go out that night. On the television was the Olympics with a Chinese perspective. It was interesting. We also discovered that they don’t censor anything since they showed the luger that died slam into the pole that killed him, watched them trying to revive his body and then saw his lifeless body being carried through his funeral. I turned away at the crash so didn’t see it but my two friends in the room screamed. It was highly disturbing and I missed having the American censoring system.

Anyway, that night we went out to the bars. First we went to a karaoke bar which was fun but filled with just SAS people and was tiny. So after just a little bit of time there and singing a few songs we left to go find some club that was supposed to be amazing. It WAS a lot of fun and we had a really awesome night dancing. We met a bunch of people from all over and it was an overall great night. When we finally got back to the hotel I fell right asleep.

The next morning we woke up for a day that would be filled with markets and shopping. The first place that we went was an antique market. This one was awesome because it wasn’t filled with the same clothes and backpacks kind of stuff as the other markets we had been to were. Instead, there was a ton of artwork and, as the name of the market hints at, antiques. It was really cool walking around and checking out all the different items. Following this market we went for lunch at a hotpot restaurant. The food wasn’t as good as the last place we had went to but it was still a good time. Next we went to the pearl market, which was back to the typical market place in China. We had a lot of fun bargaining one last time since we were leaving later that night. Finally, the last stop of the day was the Temple of Heaven. It was definitely beautiful and we walked around taking fun pictures and hanging out. The coolest part of this temple was that there was an entire area that everyday was filled with the older locals sitting around playing music, cards, dancing, singing, etc. It was INCREDIBLE to see. They all looked so happy there. At the end of the line of different activities there was a park filled with people dancing around to this Chinese music. We all joined in and the locals came over to teach us how to do their little dances. We were all having a great time. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay for too long and left to go back to the hotel. The people on the night flight (me) were all sitting around the lobby since we had an hour between our hotel arrival and the shuttle coming to pick us up. There were ten of us on the night flight (everyone else was leaving the next morning). When we arrived at the airport we were all taken aback- we did not remember it being such a huge and beautiful airport. It was all lit up and pretty. As we waited in line to check our bags, the first few SASers that went through said that they were upgraded to business class. As all of us went through we hoped that that was the case for all of us and we would all be able to still be on the flight. It was incredibly exciting when we all got through and realized that we were all bumped to business class. The nicest thing about it was that they form massive lines 20 minutes before boarding the planes there apparently, and had we not had our tickets and been able to get our own line we would have had to wait a while to get on the plane. Our seats were huge on the plane and we were served a three course delicious meal and unlimited drinks. There were some people that REALLY took advantage of the free drinks and ordered every type of drink offered. Anyway, we were off to Hong Kong and said goodbye to Beijing… until next time!

So, that’s my trip to Beijing! It was really fun and we got to see a lot. My final thought on Beijing is that it was a city filled with lots of energy and a lot to do. It was a very enjoyable trip.

More to come on Hong Kong, Cambodia and Vietnam when I get the time!